Primary Sources with DBQs—Korea
4000 - 1000 BCE
Origin Myths
• Iryôn's Memorabilia of the Three Kingdoms (Samguk yusa): The Tangun Legend [PDF]
1000 BCE - 300 CE
Origin Myths
• Iryôn's Memorabilia of the Three Kingdoms (Samguk yusa): The Tangun Legend [PDF]
600 - 1000
Then Ten Injunctions of King T'aejo
• The Ten Injunctions of Wang Kôn (King T'aejo) [PDF]
Social Stratification: The "Bone Rank" System
Hyangga: Oral Poetry of the Silla
• "Song for a Dead Sister," by Wôlmyông [PDF]
• "Song for the Peace of the People" (Anmin'ga), by Ch'ungdam [PDF]
1000 - 1450
Han'gul, the Korean Script
• Chông Inji's Postscript to the Hunmin Chôngûm (Correct Sounds to Instruct the People), 1446 [PDF]
• Ch'oe Malli's Opposition to the Korean Alphabet [PDF]
Neo-Confucianist Hostility Toward Buddhism
• Pak Ch'o, Anti-Buddhist Memorial [PDF]
Early Chosôn Land Reforms
Social Stratification: Inherited Slave Status
• "Inheritance of Slave Status" [PDF]
1450 - 1750
Inherited Status (Slavery); Genealogy
• Excerpts from the Pangye surok: Yu Hyôngwôn on Abolishing Slavery [PDF]
• Excerpts from Preface to the Genealogy of the Andong Kwôn, by Sô Kôjông [PDF]
Neo-Confucian Reforms; Women
• Excerpts from the Sejong sillok: Reform of Funerary Practices, 1437 [PDF]
• Excerpts from the Sôngjong sillok: Prohibition Against Remarriage of Women, 1447 [PDF]
• Excerpts from Instructions to My Daughter, by Song Siyôl [PDF]
1750 - 1919
Japanese Rule (1910-1945)
• "The Old People and the New Government," by Komatsu Midori [PDF]
• Declaration of Independence (March 1, 1919) [PDF]
Late Chosôn Reformist Thought
Chông
Yagyong, 1762-1836
• Excerpts
from the Yôyudan chônsô: Chông Yagyong on the Roots of
Royal Authority
Reactions to Contact with the West, 1800s
Yi
Hangno, 1792-1868
• Excerpts
from the Hwasô sônsaeng mujip: Yi Hangno on "Sinifying
the Western Barbarians"
Ch'oe
Cheu, 1824-1864, and the Tonghak Uprising (1894-1895)
• The
Tonghak Religion and Uprising: Ch'oe Cheu on Learning Truth and Twelve
Reforms Proclaimed by the Tonghak Overseer's Office [PDF]
The Independent (Tongnip
sinmun), 1896-1899
• Editorial
on "Nation and Civilization": A Periodical for the Korean
People
• Editorial
on "Nation and Civilization": Seoul's Water Supply
Tonghak Uprising (1894-1895)
Ch'oe
Cheu, 1824-1864, and the Tonghak Uprising (1894-1895)
• The
Tonghak Religion and Uprising: Ch'oe Cheu on Learning Truth and Twelve Reforms
Proclaimed by the Tonghak Overseer's Office [PDF]
1900 - 1950
Japanese Rule (1910-1945)
• "The Old People and the New Government," by Komatsu Midori [PDF]
• Declaration of Independence (March 1, 1919) [PDF]
Formation of the Korean Communist Party
• Manifesto of the Korean Communist Party in Shanghai (1921) [PDF]
Stories about the Colonial Experience
• Oral Histories of the Colonial Era [PDF]
• Oral Histories of the "Comfort Women" [PDF]
1950 - 2000
South Korea's Postwar Development
Pak Chônghûi,
1917-1979
• Selections
from To Build a Nation (1971) [PDF]
Kim Chiha, b. 1941
• "Five
Bandits" (1970) [PDF]
